Dimond v. District of Columbia
| Decision Date | 30 May 1986 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 85-5119,s. 85-5119 |
| Citation | 253 U.S. App. D.C. 111,792 F.2d 179 |
| Parties | , 54 USLW 2619 Eileen DIMOND, et al. v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, et al., Appellants. Eileen DIMOND, et al. v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, et al. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, et al., Appellants. Eileen DIMOND, et al., Appellants v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, et al. to 85-5121. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit |
Jacob Stein and Frederic W. Schwartz, Jr., with whom Curtis E. von Kann, Washington, D.C., were on the brief for Dimond, et al., appellants in No. 85-5121 and appellees in Nos. 85-5119 and 85-5120.
Lutz Alexander Prager, Asst. Corp. Counsel, with whom John H. Suda, Principal Deputy Corp. Counsel, and Charles L. Reischel, Deputy Corp. Counsel, Washington, D.C., were on the brief for District of Columbia, et al., appellees in No. 85-5121 and cross-appellants in No. 85-5119.
Lawrence H. Mirel, with whom C. William Tayler, Washington, D.C., was on the brief for State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., et al., cross-appellants in No. 85-5120 and amicus curiae in Nos. 85-5119 and 85-5121.
John F. Lillard, III, Washington, D.C., was on the brief for amicus curiae, John Doe, in Nos. 85-5119 and 85-5121 urging affirmance.
C. Francis Murphy and Louis P. Robbins, Washington, D.C., were on the brief for amicus curiae, Government Employees Ins. Co., et al., in No. 85-5119 urging reversal.
Before WALD, STARR and SILBERMAN, Circuit Judges.
Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge WALD.
This appeal emanates from a series of constitutional challenges brought by plaintiffs Eileen Dimond, Lisa van Susteren, Henry T. Brent and Thomas Harley to the District of Columbia Compulsory/No-Fault Motor Vehicle Insurance Act of 1982. See D.C. Code Ann. Secs. 35-2101 to 35-2113 (1985 Supp.). The District Court granted summary judgment for the District of Columbia on most of these challenges but sustained plaintiff Harley's challenge to a provision which restricts an automobile accident victim's right to bring a tort suit to recover noneconomic losses such as pain and suffering unless the victim incurs $5,000 or more in medical expenses. The District Court ruled that this limitation violated the equal protection principles of the Fifth Amendment. The Court also ruled that the plaintiffs lacked standing to assert that the City Council's failure to read the proposed No-Fault bill twice in substantially the same form prior to passage as required by the charter of the District of Columbia rendered the Act null and void. Both sides appealed portions of the District Court's judgment. Prior to oral argument in this court, the District of Columbia City Council substantially amended the 1982 No-Fault Insurance Act, effective March 4, 1986. Counsel for the plaintiffs informed this court that the only claims they would continue to press on appeal after the amended No-Fault Insurance Act went into effect would be those related to Harley's challenge to the $5,000 medical expenses threshold. 1 Accordingly, only the District of Columbia's appeal from the District Court's ruling that this threshold violated equal protection principles and Harley's appeal from the Court's ruling that he lacked standing to assert that the City Council failed to observe its required procedures in enacting the 1982 No-Fault Insurance Act remain for disposition. For the reasons that follow, we reverse the District Court's ruling that the $5,000 medical expenses threshold violated the Constitution but affirm its disposition of Harley's other challenges to the 1982 No-Fault Insurance Act.
In a related appeal, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, Travelers Indemnity Company and the American Insurance Association (collectively referred to in this opinion as State Farm) contest the District Court's denial of their motion to intervene as of right in the underlying challenge to the No-Fault Insurance Act brought by Harley and the other plaintiffs. Because we find that State Farm made a legally sufficient showing that the District of Columbia might not adequately represent State Farm's interests, we also reverse this ruling of the District Court.
The 1982 No-Fault Insurance Act established a compulsory insurance system for personal injury in which victims of automobile accidents would be compensated irrespective of fault. In general, this system provided that accident victims would be paid by their own insurers rather than recovering from the insurance company of the person "at fault" for an accident. The 1982 Act required every owner of a motor vehicle registered or operated in the District of Columbia to carry insurance covering, among other things, the payment of "personal injury protection" benefits. Personal injury protection benefits provided compensation for medical and rehabilitation expenses, loss of income, and funeral costs incurred by any policy-holder, passenger, pedestrian or other uninsured person injured in an automobile accident. See D.C. Code Ann. Secs. 35-2103(a)-(b), 35-2104 (1985 Supp.). These benefits were required to be "provided without regard to, and irrespective of, negligence, freedom from negligence, fault, or freedom from fault on the part of any person." D.C. Code Ann. Sec. 35-2104(b) (1985 Supp.).
Two related features of this no-fault personal injury protection scheme are important for purposes of this appeal. First, under the 1982 Act, no-fault personal injury protection benefits compensated a victim only for economic detriment incurred as a result of an accident. Noneconomic loss, defined by the statute as "pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical or mental impairment, and other nonpecuniary damage," could be recovered only "under the tort law applicable to injury arising out of the maintenance or use of a motor vehicle." See D.C. Code Ann. Sec. 35-2102(19) (1985 Supp.). In other words, an accident victim's own insurance company would not compensate the victim for noneconomic loss. The victim could recover for such loss only by bringing a tort suit and proving that another individual was responsible for the accident.
Although noneconomic loss could be recovered only by bringing a tort suit against the driver "at fault" in an accident, the 1982 Act restricted victims' ability to bring such actions. Under section 6 of the 1982 No-Fault Insurance Act, no accident victim could bring a tort action "with respect to an injury as to which personal injury protection benefits are payable" unless the victim fell within one or more of six enumerated exceptions to this ban, five of which involved tort suits to recover noneconomic losses. See D.C. Code Ann. Sec. 35-2105 (1985 Supp.). 2 Specifically, a victim (or his survivors) could maintain a tort action to recover noneconomic losses if (1) the victim died as a result of the accident; (2) the victim was injured intentionally by a driver; (3) the victim suffered substantial permanent scarring or disfigurement, or significant permanent or temporary impairment for more than 180 continuous days; (4) the victim was injured by a person who failed to carry the statutorily required insurance; or finally, (5) the victim incurred medical expenses, including diagnostic x-ray costs, exceeding $5,000.
Plaintiff Thomas Harley and three other plaintiffs challenged the legality of the 1982 No-Fault Insurance Act in District Court. 3 The District Court first found that Harley had standing to challenge section 6(b) of the 1982 No-Fault Insurance Act. According to his unchallenged affidavit Harley sustained physical injuries in an auto accident in the District of Columbia. Although Harley suffered "a lot of pain," he did not meet any of the threshold prerequisites set forth in section 6(b) of the Act and consequently could not maintain a tort suit to recover his noneconomic losses. As the District Court concluded, "Harley's apparent inability to sue constitutes injury in fact, is traceable to Sections 6(a) and 6(b)(6) of the Insurance Act, and is likely to be redressed by a favorable decision." Dimond v. District of Columbia, 618 F.Supp. 519, 523 (D.D.C.1984).
Harley challenged the 1982 No-Fault Insurance Act on three distinct grounds. He argued first that the entire Act was null and void because the District of Columbia City Council failed to observe certain procedural requirements of the District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act, D.C. Code Ann. Secs. 1-201 to 1-299.7 (1981 & 1985 Supp.) (the Self-Government Act). Specifically, Harley contended that the City Council failed to read the No-Fault Insurance bill twice in substantially the same form before passage. See D.C. Code Ann. Sec. 1-229(a) (1981). The District Court held that Harley lacked standing to challenge the 1982 No-Fault Insurance Act on this ground, concluding that Harley's claim amounted to nothing more than a "generalized grievance alleging abstract injury in nonobservance of the Self-Government Act." 618 F.Supp. at 524.
Harley next challenged the limitation imposed by the 1982 No-Fault Insurance Act on his right to bring suit to recover his noneconomic losses. According to Harley, section 6(b)(6) of the Act established an arbitrary and irrational classification between accident victims whose medical expenses exceeded $5,000 and those whose expenses fell below that threshold. The District Court agreed, finding that the $5,000 threshold went far beyond the mere elimination of minor claims for nonserious injuries. According to the Court:
By setting an unreasonably high threshold of $5,000 in medical expenses, the City Council unreasonably barred motor vehicle accident victims who suffer serious injuries from recovering for pain and suffering and other noneconomic loss. Such a provision is not rationally related to the purpose of providing "adequate protection" to motor...
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